Al Wilson Retires

Al Wilson punished defenders for eight seasons for the Denver Broncos.

I wanted to make some room on SportRoids to give a shout out for the recently announced retiree Al Wilson. For those of you unfamiliar with him, Al Wilson was the starting middle linebacker for the Denver Broncos from 1999 through 2006. Out of a possible 128 regular season games, Wilson only missed three of them, and ended up as the starter in 120.

Al Wilson will be remembered by NFL fans as one of the greatest sideline-to-sideline middle linebackers of the league, and by Broncos faithful as one of the greatest defensive player in Denver history. During eight seasons playing in the National Football League, he managed to make the pro bowl five out of eight. The greatest thing about him was that he proved his worth by being an all-around defensive player by posting stats in all the significant categories, as opposed to being a standout in one or two.

Al Wilson, great sportsman, helps up Tom Brady after sacking him.

As a pass rusher, Wilson averaged around three sacks per season for his career. As a coverage man, when he didn’t get one of his five career interceptions, he averaged 6.8 pass deflections per year. As a playmaker Wilson averaged a forced fumble per season, and as a sure tackler, averaged 70 solos, 19.9 assisted, for a total of 89.9 per campaign.

Aside from his renaissance man-like statistics, Al was one of the more recognizable emotional defensive leaders of the NFL, and will undoubtedly be missed. He was only 31 years old when he suffered his inevitably career-ending injury on December 3^rd.

AL WILSON, SPORTSROIDS SALUTES YOU!

Mike Shanahan has seriously put a fear into the hearts of all those fantasy owners who Drafted Selvin Young for the 2008 season. On Monday Night Football it became painfully apparent that Shanahan did not intend to hand

Selvin Young looks like a great RB but will he get the touches?

the ball to Young after the 1st & 2nd carries of the game. We also saw what seemed as the emergence of RB Andre Hall who was another undrafted free agent signed by Tampa Bay in 2006. Andre played for south Florida and was a standout RB, however, he never got the a look in the draft much like Selvin Young. Nevertheless, Selvin scored a TD late in the game when he was given only 7 carries in the entire game. Regardless, are we going to see a 50-50 split? Who knows? Personally, I don’t even think Mike Shanahan knows. Another fact life, that diminishes both these fine RBs is that Selvin and Andre won’t be getting many looks in short yardage/goal-line situations. They have Micheal Pittman and rookie Ryan Torain (currently recovering from surgery) for that. Selvin or Andre ? who knows…

Selvin Young & Andre Hall practice hard in hopes of being #1.